Ongoing support for health and wellbeing boards post-April 2013

27 March, 2013

From 1 April 2013, responsibility for the ongoing development and support programme for health and wellbeing boards will be transferred from the Department of Health to the Local Government Association (LGA).

The LGA has been working with the Department to bring together the key national organisations whose members and delivery organisations will be operating in the new locally-led health environment, including Public Health England, the NHS Confederation, the NHS Commissioning Board, the Association of Directors of Public Health and Healthwatch England. Together they will develop an offer of support for the members and organisations involved in local health and wellbeing boards, local government, and local Healthwatch to create an environment within which boards can provide the best possible support for their local communities.

Building on the work of the National Learning Network for health and wellbeing boards, the offer is anticipated to continue supporting boards in 2013-14 by:

Establishing a single information hub, supported by several organisations, which local health agencies and their partners can tap into for support and learning

Utilising the existing sector-led improvement tools, such as peer challenge, to help HWBs reflect on their approaches and improve them for the benefit of local people

“The LGA’s new role symbolises a strong partnership that’s already in place. We want the support to be responsive to the needs of the 152 boards who will make the real difference to their local areas.

“There’s a huge amount of learning already in the system and we want to make sure that we’re linking people to the right knowledge, understanding and expertise. This involves mirroring at a national level the kind of partnership working that’s going to be essential for health and wellbeing boards to become effective local system leaders”.